While speeding through the difficulties, I've gotten killed by about half of the elite packs from Act I normal onward. Now, in Hell mode, I'm saving gold by tackling this problem. I use Evocation (-15% cd's) and the following:

1-Cast Diamond Skin and Mirror Image right away. Both have the rune effect that makes them last a bit longer, so more time is spent being "safe", with only about 4 seconds of cd time.

2-Teleport the hell away for those 4 seconds. I use Wormhole that lets you tele twice in a row.

3-Dilly dally until AP is full and cd's are done, then approach again.

I find this works Ok. Diamond skin lets you dash ahead for assassination attempts on foes that produce more foes. I might try getting my crit chance up and use Critical Mass passive to keep Diamond Skin on indefinitely. However, take a good pommelling in a boss mob, and it's gone for a real long time.

So, can anyone survive consistently without reliance on teleport? Elites take a long time to kill, so not only do your cd's get you killed, but your AP also needs time to regenerate.